How to market with the known benefits of pen and paper

How to market with the known benefits of pen and paper

There was once the prediction that radio would die with the invention of television, and then that television would disappear with the popularity of Netflix. And just like its predecessors, print has also been predicted to vanish by 2020, according to the Content Marketing Institute.

When it comes down to it, people prefer print. They would rather have pen and paper in their hands. Businesses can use this to their advantage by using hard-copy documents to market to their customers.

The benefits of pen to paper
There are a variety of reasons the public prefers paper over digital.

Creativity: According to the The Huffington Post, writing with a pen instead of a keyboard helps nourish creativity – pen users find the world "turns off" around them and they have nothing else to concentrate on beside the feeling of pen on paper. Reuters reported how even film director Quentin Tarantino discards digital when writing his scripts.

"I used red and black

[pens]," Tarantino told the source. "One of the great things about being a writer is it gives you complete license to have whatever strange rituals make you happy and productive."

Going slow: The Huffington Post added how writing longhand slows down the writer, which engages the brain more than typing on a computer does. Writing can help brainstorming and the creation of new ideas, but digital has the risk of diluting them.

The Huffington Post highlighted how speed is definitely a benefit of using digital, but most of the time, that's not the primary goal of those who are sitting down to work. Digital creates an attitude that everything has to get done as quickly as possible, as opposed to the feeling that the best ideas should be created.

Better learning: A study was done where students had to take notes on TED lectures, either using pen and paper or a digital device. The Huffington Post reported that the students who typed took notes verbatim, but the researchers found that not translating notes in one's own words "hurts learning." Those students also scored badly when they were tested for comprehension.

However, those who wrote down their notes had better brain cognition since they were able to memorize what they were writing in their own voice. They were able to take it slow, recognize what they wrote and remember it later on.

The uses of paper marketing
Since there are a variety of reasons consumers should use paper, businesses must consider it as an option. Marketing with paper products catches consumers' eye more than any kind of digital marketing does. According to the Content Marketing Institute, there are fewer magazines and print newsletters, so companies can take advantage and use them to advertise.

These print items actually improve customer retention. Something like a physical newsletter helps keep customers connected even after they make the purchase. This is crucial for companies to remember – the relationship with consumers doesn't end when they walk out the door. There should always be a way to retain them. Employees can ask for their addresses to send newsletters, so customers will be updated on news and promotions. Having a paper newsletter lowers the risk of it being lost or ignored, as digital can be disregarded or buried in the junk mailbox.

The source added how print allows customers to ask tough questions – a publisher told the author of the article that "the Web is where we go to get answers but print is where we go to ask questions." Print will never be outdated and will be here to stay due to its benefits and the fact that customers will always prefer it over digital.